Fire and Flora, 2021. (As part of the group show - A Community of Sentient Beings) curated by Hugo Gromny and Wiola Ujazdowska.
Community of Sentient Beings was curated by Hugo Gromny and Wiola Ujazdowska, who sought to create a space where multiple voices could come together while reflecting on different ways of voicing, hearing, and sensing. In this way, the exhibition offered a space for various forms of engagement, emphasizing the project’s processual and performative nature by activating the space and exploring different ways of inhabiting it. The museum was transformed into a space of connectivity.
Looking at humanity’s connection to the world as a community of sentient beings opened up various paths of investigation, whether through the relationship between humans and nature, humans and culture, or humans and each other. The term sentient being allowed the exhibition to move beyond historically charged definitions and consider personhood and humanity in broader terms. At the core of the concept was an interrogation of the historical and social use of the category of “human,” questioning whom and what were considered part of a community.
Hafnarborg and its history also provided an interesting context for such an investigation, as the transformation of its function from a pharmacy and chemical laboratory could be seen as a symbolic shift from healing practices based on science, namely chemistry—towards the spiritual and cultural agency of art.
The artwork itself consisted of five 60x45 oil paintings that were all painted as a series intended for the content of the exhibition.
Fire and flora, lyrical text: As Fire becomes Matter
Cyclical, circular – in motion. The layers of time collide and touch upon each other, drifting in and out like river streams. Veins of something that has been, or is yet to be born. All One, in the well of becoming.
Roots appearing on the surface, remnants of something that is lost and forgotten. Yet it is emerging, dwelling between the spaces, hiding in the land. These codes speak to the nature of the landscape, these codes speak to the man - who still worships both true and false realities. Fire is unleashed, it travels and grows. The tongue of the flame, burning red, riding through the forest. As the black field expands, something is appearing in the smoke.
